fossilised | I come from a land of ice and snow

It was a sensible approach to take. The orders were soothing, even if he felt some odd attachment to Steve, and less distressing than the constant talk about how they used to be friends. This was someone who knew his place, and knew the Soldier's place, and intended to make things right.

None of the orders he was given were that unusual. He had been through medicals before and often required maintenance if he had been in cryo for a long time, it could mess up both his organs and the connections to his cybernetic arm. He would recognise a proper medical examination by a HYDRA technician if it happened.

He stepped forwards as if to go in front of Thor, but hesitated, glancing over at Steve.

"He's my handler."

Possibly.

"Is he coming?"

‘Handler’ was not a strange term to Thor, though it was generally used towards animals that required being trained and fed and cared for by someone with more intelligence. Thor gazed at the copy of his Steven, one he did not necessarily need any more because he could have his Steven back again. “He is not your handler. There is another who shares his appearance who will be put in charge of your continued training if you would be calmer in his presence, but this one is wrong.” Wrong in so many ways. And yet, it saddened Thor to throw him out, even if he was no longer needed here. Bruce’s experiments were important to finding out the extent of the rot upon that other universe but otherwise, Thor had no need for this Steven.

His eyes returned to James, and while they were hard and commanding, they also were curious.

“He has forgotten his duty,” Thor continued, perhaps to benefit all listening. “And that is a worrying state to be. It is our intention to help him find his way again but it is impossible to tell if that can be accomplished.” Thor spoke truthfully to James, for even if he was just a Midgardian, and a damaged one at that, telling those beneath you the truth in all matters that concerned them allowed them to assist properly.

Thor would be ready to subdue James if he refused to listen to him. If he refused to come along, he would knock him out and carry him. Steven would have a rest day today and while Thor was prohibited from ordering him to do anything outside of his current sacred duty for the next year, he doubted that Steven would need to be ordered to assist with this.

That made sense in the world view of the Soldier's head. Steve was a handler who had defected from HYDRA and was therefore unsuitable, perhaps because of his insistence on treating the Asset like something more human than weapon, and he was not allowed to be his handler any longer. Perhaps he would be ordered to retrain the man, or perhaps kill him, both would be acceptable.

He stepped further forwards, something underneath the steel blue of his eyes troubled, though it didn't quite breach the surface. For now the Soldier was all, he would do as he was ordered, because he didn't know any other life.

"Yes, sir."

Steve tried to protect, hand through the bars and eyes beseeching on Thor.

"Please don't do this, if you have anything of the Thor I had started to call a friend then you don't want to do this. He's a good man, he's my best friend, and he's been hurt. Don't use him any more! Buck! Bucky, please listen to me..."

Though he had not been prepared to face Steven, in any iteration at this point, Thor’s eyes were cold and overly hard as he gazed the Midgardian’s way. He was harsh now for a reason, though he doubted Steven would understand. It seemed that these Midgardians were far more stupid than the mud they built their cities on and had no use at all for logic. “You will not address me so familiarly,” he said, having no desire to be friends with anyone of Steven’s race. It didn’t matter if he did love his Steven. The reasons were so very complicated. “You are wrong and the Thor you knew was weak. It should not have been so easy to kill him and yet he was sent to his Valhalla with very little effort. I am aware, however, that James had been injured. And gravely. By your own people. If I knew who has taken away his smile and his wit, they would be dead by now. Do not fret. I will see to his return to health. And, perhaps, you will come around as well… But it is not often that the first generation of a culling comes to understand their point and purpose. I hope you will find a good afterlife once your time here has been extinguished.”

And it would be, Thor thought. When this year ended, the Midgardians not returned to Asgard would be left here to do as they wished until their lives ended. That typically took a month, not for lack of supplies but because Midgardians were, when wild, willing to kill each other rather than share ample resources that would allow them all to thrive.

A shame, that, but not his problem.

“You will come with me,” he said to James, gesturing for him to walk again. “This nightmare will be over soon.”

Anthony was left alone once Thor and James left and he looked up at the trio still in the cage. “Is there anything, within reason, I can get for you until Bruce or Loki come for you?” Or until their time was up. And for angering Thor, that could be soon.

Steve watched in heartbroken impotence as Bucky followed Thor, blank eyed and obedient. He wanted to sit him down and find out what had happened, he wanted to hunt down everyone who had changed his friend into this and make them pay slowly and viciously. He wasn't even usually a vindictive person, but he couldn't help it right then, he couldn't stand the thought of Bucky suffering more.

He turned to glare at this fake Tony, still defiant, still utterly dumbfounded that anyone could think it was okay to treat other people this way.

"I don't want anything from you."

Steve would fight until the end, whether that was two days from now, or two years, or two decades. He wouldn't let anyone take Clint and Tony against their will, he wouldn't let anyone take him. He was done, no more.

"So stubborn," Anthony said, about to leave, when Clint asked for some better food. He didn't want to contradict Cap but he wanted the plates that they were brought in on.

"I saw you bring some good meat and bread to the guys over there before they were taken away so how about we get some of that," Clint asked, hands on his hips.

"That food is for breeders," Anthony frowned.

"Well you're breeding us right? Did to Tony didn't you?" He would say he was sorry about how blunt he was being later. "So what gives man? If I'm next on your gonads list, I should get something good for a change."

Anthony considered that and nodded. "All right," he said, leaving the three alone. Clint just held up a finger to Rogers, not even challenging him to put up a fight, just stopping it in its tracks.

James was taken to Thor's tent, but in the dead of night when his friends and fellows and the slaves were either sleeping or celebrating, no one paid a lick of attention. He let James go first, the opulence striking in furs and heavy fabrics and carved furniture. This was a tent for a king, past and future.

"Are you in physical pain anywhere? I should like to address this first," Thor commanded kindly.

For some reason, the Soldier didn't feel better here. He thought that this disquieting sensation would disappear once he was correctly following orders and with someone who appeared like a handler. But this was not a correct operating base for maintenance, there were no technicians here, and this potential handler was looking at him kindly. It itched under his skin.

"Requesting authorisation."

It would work more clearly if he had proof this was a HYDRA handler. The words to wipe everything clean in his head, a phrase that told him this was someone to be obeyed. Anything that would wipe out the earnest and desperate eyes of Steve Rogers from where they seemed to be burned into his consciousness.

The Soldier remained at attention, blank eyes watching Thor carefully.

Dropping himself into his favourite seat, kingly in every way, Thor surveyed the tent and the single person inside of it. "Your authorization," he said, the word strange on his tongue as all Modgardian words were, "is simply that you will listen to no other. I have claimed you and as such, you will wear my colours and only my colours. You will do what you are told, when you are told. You will serve me and do all I wish. There is nothing else you need worry yourself about."

He already had a feeling that this was not going to go well. Whatever had been done to James had cemented a particular set of behaviours in him. He was locked like a secret box. The wrong push would cut off the finger that did the pushing.

Luckily, Thor was made of stronger stuff.

"You will forget any orders from the past. Only the present count."

The Soldier glanced around very swiftly and slightly, as if looking for the machine that would ensure that was the case. He had been wiped and prepped before, he knew what to expect, but there was nothing here. Just the tent and its trappings, as well as its master.

"I require authorisation."

His repeated tone of voice was still level and calm, but within the Soldier he was preparing for a fight. He had protocols for what to do should someone not HYDRA take him and attempt to control him, they weren't so stupid as to allow their weapon to fall into just anyone's hands.

Thor would need the trigger words or the reprogramming machine to continue. The second perhaps out of his reach, but the first were a possibility using magic if he thought that far.

It didn't occur to Thor that there might be trigger words, but he did know all about enchantments and how to use magic to understand what seemed foreign to him. So he watched James for a moment before standing. "You will wait here. I will fetch what I believe we both need."

He expected James to wait in the tent as he headed towards Loki's. Anthony was just getting back to his master but Thor more or less trampled him to be first inside.

It was typically how life with Thor around went so Anthony wasn't annoyed.

"Brother! I believe James to be under enchantment. I require your assistance. It may be useful in your research to the rot on this neighbouring dimension." Thor meant well but Loki would likely see beyond what he was saying to what was truly being said.

Thor was bound and determined to get James back or kill him. There was no middle ground.

Loki had been looking forward to a relaxing evening.

He had set aside a smooth board with little stone pieces, intending to teach Anthony one of his favoured games of skill from Alfheim, and simply enjoy spending some time in solitude with him. A hot bath, some good food, perhaps some bed sport if the whim took him. But it seemed that was not meant to be.

"Midgardians do not possess magic of their own, Thor, or did you never listen to our tutors as a boy?"

While it was true that they were still connected on some level to seidr, as all races on Yggdrasil's branches were, they simply did not have the strength in their blood to manipulate it into solid form.

"He can be under no enchantment, his mind is simply broken. I am sorry that you must see him so, but that is the case and you must accept it."

"The perhaps you can enchant him instead," Thor said. Testy. If Loki wanted a nice evening with his slave then he had better see to what Thor wanted. "There is some sort of trigger. He must have been trained to accept commands only when that is said or done. Had has asked me for confirmation twice now and I would have it known."

It was better Thor waste time with this than with Steven. Especially because, by law, Steven was not available for anything Thor wanted. A breeding slave need only breed during this year. And to bed one would be a waste of vitality.

"I beseech you, brother. Assist in this and you may ask anything of me in return."

Anthony glanced between the two. That was a dangerous price.

That was indeed a dangerous price.

Loki's eyes gleamed with a sudden interest, and he unfurled himself from his chair with a sinuous grace to hold out his hand so that Thor could grasp his forearm in binding agreement should he wish to.

"I will hold that favour for the future, my brother."

If Thor truly was desperate enough to get James back then he would definitely not say no to profiting out of that desperation. Perhaps down the line he would use that favour to teach Thor a salient lesson about being careful what he bound himself into, and that nobody was ever worth chaining themselves for.

Loki was his brother, though, and Thor thought himself safe from anything too terrible. He might learn one day. Then again, he might not. A deal with Loki was dangerous, and one sealed with an embrace was even more so. He did clasp his brother's arm tightly and Anthony set aside what he planned to discuss with his master until later. He fetched his cloak and then followed the pair out.

Where Samuel had gone, Anthony did not know. He was not here to breed and so ought to be at Thor's side but it was likely that Thor dismissed him as he was wont to do to all slaves who were not James or Steven.

He did not need more minding. He kept slaves for status and for their company. Little else.

Back in the tent, James was still standing where he had been left and Anthony closed the flap tightly behind him. Whatever Loki had planned, it would not be good for others to see. His master dabbled in the darker forms of sorcery from time to time.

Loki had seen James a few times in his cage, of course, but he had not conducted much of his time with him as he had been Bruce's to investigate and he held no personal attachment to the James of the past. To see him now was to take him in properly from head to toe, to finally see with his magic where all the cracks were in his mind.

Disturbing.

Not even the Aesir could remake someone in this way, it was pervasive and disgusting, and it made him feel unclean to touch his fingertips to James' head, but he did so in order to start delving for where the various trigger words were. Images, silent but moving, appeared like smoke every so often in the air. James being tortured, James being strapped down and electrocuted, James being remade.

When Loki stepped back, he looked truly disgusted.

"I shall write the words you require to control him on parchment, but you would do far better to kill him, it would be a kindness. There is nothing there now but a sword to command, no person at all."

"I can not let a people as wrong and diseased as those win over even a slave," Thor said, anger making the ground beneath their feet shake. He did not notice Anthony looking about ready to tackle Loki out of harm's way if it came to that, mostly because Anthony was like a gnat. A fly. He meant nothing at all and it was laughable to think he could ever protect his brother from anything. He was a pet, little more, fancy and amusing but of little worth.

Or so Thor thought.

"I must try. He reacted to the false Steven in the pens. Perhaps it was nothing, perhaps it means that there is a way to call him back. I must try. But I will not allow him to suffer long if it is impossible to bring back his mind. He does not yet have one foot in Valhalla." Thor took the parchment and though Loki likely had other things to say to him, Thor was no longer interested in listening.

Anthony was glad to leave with his mast after that. It had grown frightening in Prince Thor's tent.

Once he was alone with the Wrong James, Thor held the paper. The words translated to all-speak just fine but they made little sense to him. "I have the way to unlock you," Thor told James in the low brazier light. "But it is my goal to remove the teaching of those that hurt you. If you are but a sword, you will be as Mjolnir is, strong and perfect, and instrument for so much more than bludgeoning." He frowned at James' blank face and said the words.

Loki was glad to retreat with Anthony, he did not wish to be in the company of that strange blank James any longer. Midgardians were truly a savage and disgusting race when left to their own devices. Only in the service of those who had more understanding could they ever rise above their base instincts and become something more, and he was sure that each slave here in the training grounds could now see what a blessed life they led compared to what could have been.

The Soldier stood still and blank throughout the exchange with Prince Loki, only moving when he heard the words begin. He didn't fight it, he knew better than that, but he did grimace until they settled into place within his head.

"Ready to comply."

His eyes were now full of complete obedience, but not the loving loyalty of his last James. He would obey any order Thor gave to him, proven as a handler now, but he did not have the capacity for emotion.

Thor was certain it would come with time. He just needed to work on it. Whatever those words did, they had at least triggered obedience in James and so he had a base to start. Thor returned to his seat and he bid his slave, already claimed, to kneel at his feet as comfortably as he could manage. He knew better than to suggest he just kneel. James would have to be reprogrammed. Slowly. And Thor had all the time in the world right now.

"I do not wish your body to feel discomfort," he said with an even tone, and so you will be responsible for making sure of your comfort. Monitor this closely."

He didn't know that James would have trouble with this because he had been previously trained to ignore his body and its discomforts. But he would learn. Or he would die. Even if he did not have life as an incentive, it was a simple fact. Not a motivator.

"Now. You will tell me all of your previous training. It was done incorrectly and we have much work to retrain you. Start with your earliest memory of training and work forward. If your tongue becomes dry, fetch yourself water and wine."

The problem with the Soldier was that a lot of him was blank. In order to make sure that he became everything they needed him to be, it was necessary to remove almost every time they completely reset him, only leaving some things to continue through. He wouldn't be able to give a full record, as he only had pieces, but what he could give...

It was probably worse delivered in such a cold and dead voice, as though the atrocities committed were done to someone else or just a boring list of numbers. He might not remember it all, but the Soldier told of brutal tests that made him able to stand on broken legs or ignore gut wounds, of reconditioning and electricity, of cryogenic freeze and the lack of even a name.

He was a weapon, nothing more or less.

He only stopped for a drink when his voice nearly gave out, not yet attuned enough to his body to notice simple dryness of his mouth. Hopefully Thor would be content with the information given, because the Soldier didn't pull any punches in telling all he did remember.

Content was not the right word but Thor was pleased to have the knowledge even if he did not like the knowledge itself. His eyes stayed fixed on James as if he needed to keep him in his sight at all times. The account was noticeably lacking, missing pieces, but it was as the healers said and as Loki alluded to. James, or the person this James had once been, likely was not in there.

"We must erase the damage," Thor said. "While it is commendable that you were fought through trials of fire and your body had been properly conditioned, it has left little room for your soul. You will say that you are only a weapon but this is not true and it is a mountain we must climb together. And so first we must give you a name and not a designation. Even the best weapons have names and so why should you be different? You shall answer to James. It is what I will call you and others may as well. Now we must start on lessons you have learned beyond the physical. Your skills are important to me and many may come in use later. I know of your strength and you have told of your endurance. But what of your loyalty? You have no trust of me and yet you allow me to command you completely. It is not how loyalist is earned and so you will relearn this. But first, you will sleep upon my furs. You will think of this loyalty until you sleep. None shall disturb you until you wake."

Thor felt almost as if he was trying to re-break a stallion who had been taught innocrectly how to cross a river and now was afraid of water. Impossible, perhaps. But no better than he to do this.

Once James did wake, he would wait to see his behaviour. Would be kneel before him? Call out? Or lay there until Thor said another word? Time would tell.

Thor would not find the Soldier an easy task to break, the only way to the pieces of Bucky that lay underneath the shell could be found through Steve Rogers. He didn't care enough about anything else to go for it, to think beyond his orders and try to obey them to the best of his ability. He had many handlers over the years who behaved in different ways, Thor was just one more.

He did as he was told and stretched out on the furs and immediately closed his eyes. He thought on loyalty, as he had been instructed, until he slept. But as he had been told to sleep, that time was little more than a couple of minutes, breathing quickly evening out to the steady rhythm of sleep.

When he woke, a precise five hours later, he rose smoothly and silently to stand to attention and wait for his next orders. He would not continue to lie there, for that would be deceptive and he needed to show that he was ready for his next orders. Poor Thor would not find more than a silent, but very obedient, shadow in the Soldier for a long time yet.

Though Loki did not believe him to be patient, Thor would show him otherwise when he truly wanted something. And so, as Clint was taken away to be bred in Bruce's experiments, unable to be stopped by Tony or by Steve, Thor started to be seen around camp with his new slave. James wore a simple tunic of red with gold edges, nothing elaborate like Samuel now wore or Steven had worn and would wear again. Thor was just acclimating James to the sights and the sounds of camp. So he went with him to breakfasts with Loki and dinners with Sif. He stood waiting as those dinners turned into a tussle in the furs with his friend, though Sif expressed dismay at how little James-like he was and had him turned towards the wall more often than not.

After it was confirmed that both Tony and Clint had gotten two female slaves pregnant each, they were left alone for the time being. No one tried to force Steve to couple with anyone. He was deemed unwanted.

But it had to be burning him. Why did they keep him alive? What was he to do in a cage with two men that seemed to be more cutting wit and distance as each day progressed? There was never any news of Bucky either. It wasn't a knowledge that Bruce had.

And in fact, no one paid much attention to him at all as the third month of their captivity rolled around until Thor heard James call for 'Steve' in his sleep. Just a whisper. Just an accident of the mind. As he could not see to his own slave (who now had fifteen healthy children to be marked once they were born), Thor came for Steve Rogers on a rainy afternoon as Tony slept and Clint openly sharpened pottery.

"He had called for you and you will come," Thor told Steve. "If you struggle in any way, your blood will stain the floor. If you attempt to kill yourself, I will allow it. Now come."

Steve was never going to back down, but he was beginning to lose hope. He didn't know how to help Clint or Tony, and neither of them seemed to want his help. Maybe they resented him for not having gone through what they went through, or maybe it was just too much for them, but they hardly ever spoke to each other as the weeks went by.

He tried.

Every time they came to take Tony or Clint, he tried to fight for them. He ended up unconscious so many times, he nursed broken bones and swollen bruises, but it was never any good. He demanded to see Bucky, he pleaded for news of him, and all to no avail. So it was a total shock when Thor appeared after weeks of complete silence from that end.

"He asked for me?"

Steve wasn't going to fight this at all. He'd fight if they tried to make him do something, if this was a ploy, but he wasn't going to fight being taken to Bucky. He followed Thor eagerly and dropped to his knees as soon as he reached the tent, eyes full of tears.

"Buck? Buck... it's me, it's Steve."

The Soldier snapped awake almost at once, for just a moment actual human emotion crossing his face when he looked at Steve before it settled into blankness again and his face tilted to Thor, ignoring Steve completely.

"Orders, sir?"

"Make friends," Thor said evenly. He'd been trying with James for weeks now but nothing made him smile. And while he was all right knowing that his James was gone and this shell could never replace him, Thor was too tenacious to back down. "But if he attempts to escape, you are to kill him."

It was not a good way to make friends but Asgardians understood that you could like a person and still be tasked to kill them if needed. The two were not exclusive of each other.

And so Thor left, joined by Samuel, to head over to Fandral's tent for a night of amusement and song.

It left Steve pretty confused. He hadn't been out of that ten by fifteen foot cage since he had tried to swallow his own tongue. "Buck. Has he been hurting you?"

The Soldier always obeyed any order given to him, no matter how contradictory or bizarre, because that was his purpose. But for the first time in his memory, he was completely stymied on how to actually fulfil it. Make friends? A weapon didn't have a friends, and even if they did, he had no idea how to go about it.

He stood in silence for a few minutes as he tried to puzzle it out. He already knew that this man was a traitor, a previous handler gone rogue and now a prisoner. So perhaps this was a ploy to gather information, but in a gentler way than torture? Okay, so it was playing a part, not real friendship, he could probably do that. But how were friends made?

Conversation.

"No," he said, voice rusty from disuse. Okay, how to do this? His brow furrowed as if in great effort. "Tell me about yourself." That was right, wasn't it?

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